The Shelly Bay Ladies Swimming Circle by Sophie Green

Author:Sophie Green
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Swimming & Diving, Family Life, Sports & Recreation, Fiction, Sea Stories, General, Friendship, Women
Publisher: Hachette UK
Published: 2020-02-13T00:00:00+00:00

WINTER 1983

CHAPTER 30

The piece of paper says that Alcoholics Anonymous meetings are held every Tuesday at 7 p.m. at St Vestey’s Church on the plaza. It is Tuesday today, and it’s six-thirty. Elaine feels a clutch at her throat. The first time at anything new is hard, she tells herself, but it’s only the first time once. It sounds trite, but she has no licence to be snobbish about motivational phrases.

It seems incongruous that a bunch of drunks would meet in the house of the Lord. Or perhaps it’s poetic. They’re meant to offer themselves up to a higher power, after all. That’s what she’s heard.

Not that she’s heard much. She hasn’t paid attention to any details about AA before now, and if Theresa hadn’t suggested it she’s not entirely sure she would have found her way to a meeting – even if it has taken her several false starts to get here. Nor does she know what she would have done otherwise. Because she’s a coward – that’s what she’s realised about herself. She’s been drinking to run away from reality, and she was too ashamed to tell James the truth about why the car was dented. It wasn’t even brave going to Theresa, because she knew Theresa was the one person who would be kind to her. Theresa wasn’t the only person who could help her, though: James could have done that. Except she didn’t tell him.

And now she has to, because he’s home unexpectedly early and she isn’t going to use that as an excuse to miss the meeting. On top of the excuses she has already made, that is. Just as she became an expert at lying to herself about how much of a drunk she was, she grew adept at telling Theresa she was ‘definitely planning’ to attend a meeting. Until yesterday, when Theresa was uncharacteristically firm and told Elaine that she had to go and she wouldn’t accept another excuse. She also asked for a report tomorrow morning.

‘Short day, darling?’ she says after he kisses her hello – always on the lips. ‘Relatively speaking, that is.’ She hopes she sounds light, carefree, blasé, but is sure she doesn’t.

‘There was a meeting but it’s been moved. What’s that?’ He points to the piece of paper in her hand.

‘It’s, ah …’ She gives him the fake smile she’s used on his colleagues in the past, to suggest, in what she hopes is a playful manner, that she’s about to say something awkward. ‘It’s the details of an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting that’s on tonight. Shortly, actually.’

She drops the fake smile and swallows her nerves. James may make the occasional comment about how much she drinks but he’s never called her a drunk. And in front of him she’s never claimed the label either.

He puts his keys on the sideboard. ‘Oh?’ He looks like he’s about to laugh. ‘Who’s that for?’

She blinks. ‘For me,’ she says, trying for a real smile this time. ‘I … thought I should go.

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